Let’s be honest here, as a Nepali, a lot of us don’t really watch Nepali Channels- especially in this day and age of The Internet.
But despite that, quite a few of us grew in the days when the internet was still new in Nepal. In those times, TV was one of the primary sources of entertainment. How can we forget that day when we used to fight with our brothers just to watch Cartoons when they wanted to watch some music show on other channels.
A lot of us grew up during the age of TV so it may not be a surprise for you when we say that there is more than one Nepali Channel. But let us ask you – How many Nepali Channels do you know?
Here we have a list of 10 Popular Nepali TV Channels that some of us may not know about. Let’s get started.
1) Nepal Television (NTV)
Established in 1985, NTV is The OG of Nepali Channels and it is the first Nepali Channel of Nepal as well. In fact, NTV was the only channel until the early 2000s. It was the sole source of Entertainment and news back in the days when TV was first introduced in Nepal. If you are old enough, you should remember those days when you used to group up with your family to watch the weekly shows like Tito Sathya, Jire Khursani, Meri Bassai, and Maha Chautari- the shows that popularized legends like Dipak Raj Giri, Santosh Panta and Dhurmus/ – Suntali.
Along with this let’s not forget our first taste into cartoons as well with NTC airing cartoons such as Meena and Moomin along with Tom and Jerry.
2) Kantipur Television
Kantipur is also among the OGs of Nepali Channels. While there were many shows on these channels, most of us used to watch these channels for three things – the awesome News set, Call Kantipur – where a lot of us developed our first crush on Malvika Subba and Suraj Jung Thakuri, and 2 PM matinee show that ran every Saturday at 2 pm showing one of the popular Bollywood Movie.
This Nepali Channel was the place for Music and Movie lovers back in the day. Along with this, these were also the channels where we first got to see the show “Sajha Sawal” – a show that took the concerns of the public and asked the questions to the experts of the respected field, often in real-time.
3) Image Channel
Image Channel was the Music hub of the early 2000s for Nepali. While this channel did cover news, most of it was focused on music, modeling, and entertainment. If you are old enough you may remember a similar Indian channel called B4U- Image Channel was the B4U of Nepal but with the added benefit of News at regular intervals.
This is also the channel where we first got the feature of requesting the song that we loved via SMS and got the chance to send messages to our loved ones via SMS with shows like SMS and More and MOYC (Music of your choice). Since this was among the first three channels of Nepal, the chances were that the ones whom you dedicated a massage to in these shows would actually get the message. So if someone blocked your number, you could still send them a message and ask for another chance through this channel – and many did.
We would like to think that NTV, Kantipur, and Image are the Holy Trinity among Nepali Channels as they were the first three channels in Nepal.
4) Sagarmatha
After these three core channels, we got to see the first Nepali channel that was focused on the news – Sagarmatha TV. This was back in 2007 and it was a chaotic time in the modern timeline of Nepal so people really did need timely and constant updates of information and news. So Sagarmatha took advantage of that situation and gave us what we needed.
There is nothing much to say about this channel as this channel was mostly about keeping people up to date with news about all sorts of affairs. The good thing about this was that Sagarmatha didn’t limit itself to the news about the political situation of Nepal but rather covered all sorts of News including science updates, entertainment updates, and technological updates as well making this Nepali channel one of the most valuable sources of information for those who were still dependant on TVs back in its time.
5) ABC Nepal
Sticking with the News theme, after Sagarmatha Came ABC channel that had a similar theme. ABC was a channel dedicated to news as well but when compared to Sagarmatha, ABC was a bit more specific to formal news – discarding the entertainment sector to some extent. Due to this reason, ABC covered its own niche market, staying somewhere in between an overall news-related Nepali Channel and a channel that only shows news in the format of News Shows.
6) News 24
Taking a different approach from both Sagarmath and ABC, News 21 became a channel that produced shows that presented formal news and debates about the Political and socio-economical situation of Nepal.
With shows such as Sidha Kura Janata Sanga and Hatkadi as well as Power News, you can very easily guess which direction this Nepali channel was trying to take. But that being said, while this channel did ignore a lot of viewers by neglecting the entertainment factor, it also gained some of the most intellectual and mentally mature among the audiences – who sought to know the news.
7) AP1 TV
Going away from Nepali Channel that covers a specific Niche Market for a bit, AP1 TV is more of a jack of all trades. This Show covers entertainment, News, and reality TV as well. For a lot of us who were still stuck on TV back in 2016 (mostly due to unreliable internet) this AP1 was basically an upgrade from the NTV.
NTV was good and all but it was kind of getting boring to take at the same old format of shows. So AP1 became the best alternative for NTV. With shows like Nepal Idol, Boogie Woogie, Nepali Version of KBC, and The Idea Studio, AP1 quickly rose in Popularity.
8) The Mountain TV
No, this Nepali Channel is not the same as Sagarmatha TV. While both of these channels do cover similar content, it is more of a competitor for News 24 rather than Sagarmatha since the content of this channel is also based around News and debates that target the current issues of Nepal in political and socio-economical aspects.
With Shows like Mission News, Urja Bahas, Biz Talk, and Sikhya Sarokar, we can clearly see that the target of this Nepali Channel is the young adults of Nepal.
9) Himalayan TV
Himalayan TV is one of those jack of all trades in the scenario of Nepali Channels. Before there was AP1 there was Himalayan TV as an alternative for Nepal TV. While this channel doesn’t exactly have any shows that came into the highlight, the general content of this channel is rather decent and enjoyable with a different format than NTV.
So due to all of these reasons, Himalayan TV had its own set of niche audiences as well.
10) TV Filmy
Let’s end this list with a Nepali Channel that is the most unique of them all TV Filmy. As the name suggests, this channel was all about Nepali Movies but instead of showing clips and music, this channel airs full-length movies (with tons of ads in between).
Yes, there is such Nepali Channel out there. We all are familiar with the Indian Channel S Max right? The one that is infamous for airing Sooryavansam? Meet its Nepali counterpart but with fewer repeating movies. Just don’t expect them to air recent movies – this channel only airs movies once they have been taken off the Nepali Box office and have made all revenue they can from official shows on movie halls.
So,
To be honest there are quite a few more Nepali Channels out there such as Araniko TV, Times TV, Space link, and so on. But despite all of the existing Channels, besides their own niche audience, not a lot of people know about them. The ones on this list are some of the best-known Nepali Channels out there.
Hope you found this interesting. If you have any suggestions for us, do let us know in the comments. And as always, thank you for reading till the end.
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